
Book__^ni-K: 



Copyright N"_. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



HISTORY OF NUTLEY 




OLD NUTLEY MANOR 



THE HISTORY OF NUTLEY 

ESSEX COUNTY 

NEW JERSEY 



Compiled by 

ELIZABETH STOW BROWN 

Member of the New Jersey Historicai, Society 



NUTLEY, NEW JERSEY 

THE WOMAN'S PUBLIC SCHOOL AUXILIARY 

1907 






LIuRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Cwies Received 
MAV 7 190/ 

^, Copynght Entry 

^n A^_ '/,ff c 7, 

CLASS A XXc, No. 
COPY B. 

»' — ■ " ■ I M 



Copyright, 1907 

by 

The Board of Education of Nutley, 

New Jersey 



DEDICATED 

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE 

TOWN OF NUTLEY 



"Industrious Persons, by an exact and scrupulous 
Diligence and Observations, out of Monuments, 
Names, Words, Proverbs, Traditions, Private Rec- 
ords and Evidences, Fragments of Stories, Passages of 
Books that concern not Story, and the like, do save 
and recover Somewhat from the Deluge of Time." — 
Bacon, Advancement of Learning, Bk. 11. 



INTRODUCTION 

In January, 1906, a number of the members of the 
Woman's Public School Auxiliary and of the teachers 
of Nutley met to organize a Literary Section of the 
Auxiliary for the purpose of studying History. It was 
resolved to begin with the history of our own town. 

The following program was accordingly drawn up 
and carried out by the writing of papers, several of 
which required original research : 

1. The Settlement of Essex County. 

By Mrs. A. B. Meredith. 

2. Franklin, the History of its Corporate Existence. 

By Mrs. R. W. Booth. 

3. The Story of the Passaic River. 

By Miss K. A. Lambert. 

4. Old Landmarks and Traditions of Nutley 

(Franklin). 
By Mrs. R. J. M. Chase and Miss C. E. Wallin. 
5. Old Documents and Records bearing upon the 
History of Nutley (Franklin). 
By Mrs. J. S. Brown. 
6. Famous People who have lived in Nutley 
(Franklin). 

By Mrs. H. W. Goodrich. 
At the end of the season it was resolved to compile 
a History of Nutley on the basis of these papers and 
to offer it to the main society for publication. The 



Woman's Public School Auxiliary voted to assume the 
publication, deeming the work one pecuHarly fitted to 
their aims. 

The books for reference have been largely those ob- 
tained from the State Traveling Library which has 
been connected with The Park School Library. 

To Mr. William Nelson, Corresponding Secretary of 
the New Jersey Historical Society, and the first 
authority on historical matters of this neighborhood, 
we are indebted for verification in antiquarian re- 
search. The quotation from Bacon is also a contribu- 
tion from Mr. Nelson. 

Acknowledgment for his courteous interest is due to 
Mr. John Cotton Dana of the Newark Public Library, 
whose success in popularizing Newark history has 
been a direct incentive to us. 

To the Town Clerk, Mr. Frank Rusby, the Town 
Surveyor, Mr. Frank T. Shepard, and to Mr. George 
W. Symonds, we are greatly indebted for data in- 
volving consultation of records. Mr. Symonds has 
also helped us very generously by contributing the 
Nutley map, brought up to date. 

Mr. James R. Hay kindly loaned the photograph of 
C)ld Nutley Manor from which the frontispiece is 
made. 

For assistance in preparing the tablet on the old 
Vreeland or Van Zandt house, thanks are extended to 
Miss Schultz and Mr. Johnson Foy. The illustration 
is made from an impression taken by Mr. Frederic 
Dorr Steele, who generously placed his professional 
skill at our service. 

For traditions and old documents we would express 

8 



our thanks to Mr. Warren Vreeland, Mr. Silas Chap- 
pel, Miss A. L. Van Winkle, Mrs. J. R. Hay, Mrs. W. 
R. Nairn, Mr. Simon Tuers, Mrs. Barbara A. Hough, 
Mrs. Mary M. Booth, Mrs. Jared Speer, Mr. J. Fisher 
Satterthwaite, Mr. John Speer, Mr. and Mrs. Abram 
Stager; to Mr. C. F. Underbill of Newark; and to 
Mrs. Mary E. Tucker, Judge Theodore Sandford, and 
Mrs. S. W. Sargent of Belleville. 

Mr. E. F. Bassford has kindly furnished the history 
of the newspapers of Nutley. 

Mr. J. R. Hay, Mr. R. W. Booth, and Mr. A. B. Mer- 
edith, Superintendent of Schools, have very courte- 
ously assisted the compiler in the final revision of the 
manuscript. 



PREFACE 

As I have worked upon the historical material of 
Nutley, some suggestions have occurred to me which 
I should like to send forth with this little book. 

The first suggestion is that a public place be ap- 
pointed for the preservation of all historical material 
pertaining to the town. This should be not only for 
old documents of all sorts, but for the matter of the 
present day, for history in the making. The Public 
School Library might possibly have an Antiquarian 
Department and a Nutley Alcove. The Alcove 
should have not only shelves for Nutley authors, but 
files for all kinds of Nutleyana. 

Another suggestion is, that our small connection 
with the Revolution and with the Civil War be no 
longer ignored. Neither monument nor tablet stands 
within the town limits. A simple tablet on the River 
Road might record the passing of Washington's army 
along that old highway; while the entrance hall of 
one of Nutley's public buildings might at least show 
the list of the Franklin men who were enrolled in the 
Union armies. Even though more than half the veter- 
ans are dead, it is not too late to give their names a 
place of honor in the town. 

My thanks are extended to the group of "paper- 
writers" whose confidence and cordial co-operation 
have made possible this small public work, and to the 
society whose enthusiasm has undertaken its publi- 
cation. With such faithful friends and fellow-workers, 
the dream of a year ago became easily the reality of 

to-day. 

E. S. B. 

Nutley, March i, 1907. 

II 



CONTENTS 

Introduction 
Preface 

History of Nutley 
Civil Organization 
Societies, Associations and Clubs 
Public Utilities 
Statistics 



13 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Old Nutley Manor 
Vreeland Tablet 
Map of Nutley 



14 



THE TOWN OF NUTLEY 

ESSEX COUNTY 

NEW JERSEY 



Natural Features. — Three gentle ridges called some- 
times the "Foot Hills of the Orange Mountains" lie 
nearly parallel to the west bank of the Passaic River. 
Scattered forest trees of great height suggest the 
dense woods that less than half a century ago covered 
these hills. The outlook to the western horizon gives 
the wooded outline of Wachung Mountain at Mont- 
clair, while to the east are seen the hills beyond the 
Passaic with the trees, the farm divisions and the 
scattered dwellings of Union Township. 

Through the valleys run a number of little brooks, 
in some placed rapid, in others slower and broadening 
to ponds. The main stream within the town limits re- 
ceives four tributaries, of which only two are known 
by name,^ and finally empties itself into the wide 
and tranquil waters of the Passaic. This picturesque 
rivulet shadowed by overhanging willows and bor- 
dered by luxuriant green was called by the Indians 

1 Basking Brook, corrupted to Bearskin, and Snicker's Brook, the 
outlet of Wichol's Pond. 

15 



Yountacah^ (also spelled Yountakah and Yantacaw) 
and by the English settlers, when they came, Third 
River or the third branch of the Passaic from its 
mouth. - 

Geology. — This part of Northern New Jersey be- 
longs to the Triassic or Red Sand Stone Age. The two 
systems of hills of Essex County known as First and 
Second Mountains are of trap-rock formation.^ 

Changes in Town Ownership and Name. — The area 
which we now call Nutley was the northeastern por- 
tion of the original Newark. In 1812 the northern 
part of the Newark tract was set apart and named 
Bloomfield, in honor of the famous general of that 
name.* In 1839, this area was divided and a new town- 
ship was formed from the eastern part and called Belle- 
ville from its principal village at Second River. The 
third "secession" was the separation from Belleville in 
1874 of the present Nutley area, which was named 
Franklin from its leading village and post office. Nut- 
ley was the name adopted with the new charter of 
1902. 

Boundaries.' — The boundaries of Nutley are on the 
north the township of Acquackanonck and the Passaic 
County line, on the east the Passaic River, on the 



1 Meaning Ceremonial Dance. Near the mouth of the river in Pas- 
etaio County was the Indian meeting place for all the tribes around, 
the point where many trails centered. 

2 Second River was at Belleville. First River was Mill Brook in 
Newark. 

3 Shaw's Hist, of Essex and Hudson Counties, Vol. I. 

4 General Bloomfield was major in the Revolution, brigadier-gen- 
eral in the War of 1812, governor and chancellor of New Jersey. 



i6 



south the Belleville line,^ and on the west Bloomfield 
and the Morris and Essex Canal. ^ 

The Old North Boundary Line. — From the mouth 
of Third River=^ was surveyed the north line of the tract 
sold to the ''Newark ]\Ien" by the Indians in 1667. 
Governor Philip Carteret then ruled East Jersey for 
the Lords Proprietors, and Charles the Second sat 
upon the throne of England.* 

This line is described in the "Indian Bill of Sale" as 
follows : "The bounds northerly, viz. : Pesayack 
River reaches to the Third River above the town, ye 
River is called Yountacah, and from thence upon a 
northwest line to the aforesaid mountaine." This was 
First or Wachung Mountain at Montclair. When the 
Newark Patent or Town Charter was issued in 1713, 
this line is again described under "Boundaries of ye 
township of Newark," but from the other end^ from 
"a heap of stones. Erected to Ascertain ye Boundaries 
between s'd Town of Newark and the Town of Ac- 
quackanong, Thence on a South East Course to ye 
brook or Rivollet Called ye Third River, Where it 

falls into Pasayack River " When Newark's 

original tract, which covered nearly the whole of Es- 
sex County, was divided and subdivided, Newark, 
Bloomfield and Belleville successively lost this old 



1 The "Big Tree" on Washington Avenue is 150 feet south of the 
Nutley line. 

2 Opened in 1832. 

3 At the mouth of Third River is a swamp and also a considerable 
sand bar. 

4 Charles gave .Tersev to his brother James, Duke of lork, after- 
wards James II, who assigned it to Sir George Carteret and Lord 
Berkeley as Lords Proprietors. Philip Carteret was sent over as Gov- 
ernor of East Jersey in 1664. See Lee's Hist, of N. J. as a Colony and 
as a State. 



17 



north line or portions of it. Nutley, however, holds 
the eastern portion of it as her entire northern bound- 
ary to-day. This is also a part of the present north- 
ern line of Essex County, established in 1837. 

The Acquackanonck^ Grant. — North of the Newark 
tract the Dutch came. They made their purchase from 
the Indians in 1679 and received their grant from the 
Lords Proprietors in 1684-5. The southern boundary 
of the Acquackanonck Grant is described as the 
"northernmost bound of the town of Newark." Ac- 
quackanonck claimed as far down as Third River, 
while Newark claimed north of Third River to the line 
of the Indian Bill of Sale. 

This disputed territory included about one-half of 
the present Nutley area, the northwestern part. It was 
claimed by both settlements until about 1795, and then 
Newark prevailed. Documents- are in existence which 
refer to a survey and map of the boundary region in 
1792 and to suits "against the Possessors of disputed 
Lands lying on the north side of the Line between New 
Ark and Acquackanonck." Says Mr. Nelson,^ "The 
dispute as to the Boundary Line between Acquack- 
anonck and Newark had been a standing grievance be- 
tween the people concerned for fully three-quarters 
of a century before this time (1792 — 95)." 



1 An Indian name meaning sluice dam, Dutch scJilotter dam.- — Nel- 
son. 

2 See l^^ewarl- Toun Records, pp. 78, 94, 128 ; Van Hoiiten Mami- 
scripts, Wm. Nelson, Ed., pp. 63, 64 ; N. J. Colonial Documents, N. J~ 
Archives, Vol. XIII, pp. 315, 316, 324, 325. 

3 See Introduction to Van Houten Manuscripts. 



i8 



Third River on old Maps.*— The identification of 
this locahty, the Nutley area, on old maps of the state 
and colony is made plain by identifying the lower 
course and mouth of Third River, and the old north 
line of the Indian Bill of Sale and the Newark Patent. 

Slow Growth of the Newark Colony. — The govern- 
ment of the Lords Proprietors lasted only 38 years^ 
and in 1702 East and West Jersey were united into a 
Royal Province under Queen Anne. There were now 
but 600 inhabitants in the extensive tract called New- 
ark, and only 16,000 in both the Jerseys. Up to this 
time the greater part of the area which we now call 
Nutley was probably forest and so remained for 
many years more. Some of it was possibly even un- 
settled, for up to 1770 only one fifth part of East Jer- 
sey lands was ''located". - 

First Land Holdings. — The names of the men who 
first **took up" land in this area are few of them to be 
found in town or county records, though with a list 
of probable names diligent search has been made in 
all possible places of public registration or mention. 

English Settlers. — There are a few records of small 
holdings on Third River in the Newark "schedules".^ 
These are Plum (1679 and 1696), Rogers (1696), Har- 
rison (1694), Ogden (1679), and Dodd (Dode) (1679 
and 1697). 



1 See Examination of old Maps of Northern New Jersey with Ref- 
erence to the Identification of the Nutley Area and Washin^on's Route 
across it, and to the Boundary Dispute between Newark and Acquack- 
anonck. By Elizabeth S. Brown. — Proceedings of the N. J. Historical 
Society, Jan., 1907. 

2 Wayne Parker's Taxes and Money before the Revolution. 

3 Schedules of warrants of lands in Newark and Sui-veys of Iand» 
and to whom conveyed, — Bill in Chancery. (1747.) 

19 



Dutch Settlers. — It was the Dutch who character- 
ized this area by their settlement upon it. The 
evidence rests not so much upon registration of deeds 
and grants, as upon the Dutch names, the Dutch stone 
houses, and the church records of the Dutch settle- 
ments upon our borders, Second River, Stone House 
Plains (Brookdale), and Acquackanonck (Passaic), 
where our familiar names appear/ 

Landholders before the Revolution. — There is tra- 
dition that before the Revolution the river front had 
been divided among at least five proprietors, a 
Van Riper, Vreeland, Speer, Joralemon and King. 
Other names connected with farm or woodland 
holdings were Van Giesen (or Van Geesen, Van 
Giezen or Vangiesen), Riker (or Ryker), Pake, 
Van Winkle, Devosny, Cadmus, and Powelsson. 
Eleven Dutch names can be collected and 
nine English that probably represent the original hold- 
ers of title to lands in this little area. This may not be 
far from the whole number, for farms were large in 
those days and the Nutley area is less than four square 
miles. Besides those holdings of Newark men, who 
took land on Third River, presumably in this neighbor- 
hood, the Vreeland Estate on the Passaic River is the 
only one in the ''Schedules of lands in Newark and 
Surveys of lands and to whom conveyed."- The 
public registry agrees with the date given by a direct 
descendent." Old Nutley Manor stands upon the land 



1 See Lloyd's Contribution to the Early History of the Reformed 
Church at Second River. 

2 Bill in Chancery. See also Vreeland Genealogy, Winfield's Hist, 
of Hudson County. 

3 Mr. Warren Vreeland. 

20 



taken for home and farm by Jacob Vreeland in 1702, 
just as this region had passed from a Proprietary to a 
Royal Province. Such is the traditional date. A little 
stone house was built, trees were cut down, and a farm 
laid out, but Vreeland, until 1719, did not "take title" 
to his estate of 1823^ acres "to the Eastward of the 
Third River in Right of Johnston and Alexander."^ 

All the Vreelands of this region were descended from 
Michael Jansen who came from Braeckhuysen, North 
Brabant, in 1636, settled near Albany and assumed the 
name of Vreeland from Vreelandt the town in Hol- 
land. One branch of the family worked southward 
and eventually reached Acquackanonck and Newark. 
A grandson of Jacob was John M. Vreeland who in- 
creased his inheritance by purchase in 1783 of a part 
of the confiscated land of the Tory Van Giesen. The 
Van Giesen farm which was bought by Captain Speer 
was in the center of the town where the Town Hall 
and The Park School now stand. The Vreeland pur- 
chase from Captain Speer was on the north side of 
Chestnut Street and included the homestead. The 
deed is in the hands of a descendant who received this 
land from his father and still lives upon it.^ 

Old Stone Houses. — A quaint and pretty feature of 
Nutley and its country roads is the old Dutch home- 
stead of red or brown sandstone, plain and low and 
small. The usual plan is a central hall with a room on 
either side and a loft above. Some of these little 
stone houses are two hundred years old, others a hun- 
dred or more. Some have additions of a later period, 

'1 Newark Schedules, etc. 
2 Mr. Warren Vreeland. 

21 



but a number of them stand just as their owners built 
them from the sandstone which their thrifty Dutch 
eyes had so soon discovered.^ Some have a tablet set 
in the walls bearing date and initials. There may be 
stepping-stones leading to the door, cracked or broken 
or deeply pressed into the earth. Sometimes the old 
well is still in use and the tiny stope smoke-house 
stands at a little distance. Here and there one finds 
by a little cottage, half-dead fruit trees and overgrown 
shrubbery, or ancient and distorted box with the re- 
mains of a long neglected flower garden. 

Three of the smaller stone houses of the town are of 
a special antiquarian interest. The Van Zandt or 
Vreeland House by the Passaic, also known of late 
years as Bend View, was of the small plain type. The 
tradition of a lineal descendant is that it was built by 
Jacob Vreeland in 1702, and that hither he brought his 
bride in 1703. Unfortunately a modern wooden 
structure has been built around the old stone dwelHng 
entirely concealing it from the River Road by which it 
stands. Until about 50 years ago, the River Road ran 
on the east side of the house. The tablet at the back 
of the house is set into the masonry on a level with the 
top of the door and to the right. It was discovered 
under the shadow of the piazza, encrusted with many 
layers of whitewash, even partially covered with a 
moulding at the angle of the piazza and side wall. Re- 
peated washings and the removal of the moulding were 
necessary to disclose the inscription with its ornamen- 
tal border and decorations. 



1 See Allbee's Historic Houses in Bergen County. Tapers and Pro- 
ceedings of Bergen Co. Hist. Soc, 1905-1906. 




VREELAND TABLET 



A "rubbing" was taken from which an ilkistration 
was made by the "direct process." It has always been 
assumed in the town that this tablet read 1702.^ It 
has therefore been a surprise to find the date 1792. The 
initials belong to no one who ever owned the house or 
lived there so far as is known. It seems not improb- 
able that the present nine may have been an alteration 
from a zero, as such mischievous changes are not un- 
known on tombstones. 

Judge Sandford of Belleville remembers a smaller 
stone house that stood opposite Bend View, nearer the 
river, when the River Road ran to the east of its pre- 
sent line. 

The Van Riper House, also on the Passaic, is a ram- 
bling old homestead of different periods of construction 
It has long been known as Four Maples, from the great 
trees on its front slope. The original part, which has 
been torn down, was at the north end, and is believed 
to have been built before the end of the 17th century 
by one Bradbury, an Englishman. The house is con- 
structed of dressed stone and is in an excellent state of 
preservation. The Van Riper House- also has a tablet 
in the rear upon which is inscribed 

I- L- V R Pr 

May ith 

1788 

The name of Van Riper" (also spelled Van Reiper, 
Van Reyper, Van Ryper, Van Ripen, Van Reypen and 

1 Mr. Warren Vreeland also tells of a sign which was on the Van 
Zandt House when it was a hotel, and which bore the date 1702. 

2 Now occupied by Mr. Alexander II. Schultz. 

3 See News' Hist, of Pa~ssaic. 

23 



Van Reipen) is derived from the town of Ripen, in 
Jutland, Denmark, from which came the ancestor of 
the family of this vicinity, Juriaen Tomassen. With 
thirteen others he received the Acquackanonck Patent 
of 1684. His grandson was Abraham, born in 1716, v/ho 
married Elizabeth Bradbury, of the stone house by the 
Passaic. John Abraham, their son, was born in 1753, 
and married Leah Winne in 1776, and came to live in 
the old stone house. Their initials are those of the 
tablet which is said to belong to the largest addition 
to the original Bradbury house. Some years ago a sil- 
ver spoon was found in the garden marked "Letche 
Van Riper."^ 

The Vreeland Homestead on Chestnut Street, op- 
posite the Town Hall, was built according to tradition 
in 1702 or 1704 by the same mason who built Bend 
View. The house bears no tablet. This was erected 
for the Van Giesen home and was lost with its sur- 
rounding fields when the property was confiscated at 
the close of the Revolution. After John M. Vreeland 
bought the land from Captain Speer, he made this 
house his home for the rest of his life. The situation 
of this old stone house by the wayside makes it a 
familiar object to every school child in the town. An 
old cherry tree stands before the door and stepping- 
stones lead to the worn stone threshold. The well 
with its weather-beaten, though modern, well-sweep,- 
was dug when the house was built. As a reminder of 
the solidity and simplicity of the old days as well as of 

1 Letche was Dutch for Leab. 

2 Set up In 1901. 



24 



the sacrifices of a New Jersey "loyalist," it is one of 
Nutley's most interesting colonial monuments. 

The ruins of a little stone house stand on the edge 
of the slope on the east side of Washington Avenue, 
near the County Line. As one passes along, the end 
walls covered with ivy are outlined against the sky and 
the window holes and doorways frame bits of the 
distant landscape. The softened beauty of the little 
ruin suggests some romantic history, but the truth 
seems to be that it was only a barn belonging to the 
Van Riper estate. 

The other small stone houses in the town limits are : 
the Captain Speer house on Bloomfield Avenue, owned 
by Mr. Simon Tuers; the John Stager house on 
Bloomfield Avenue; the Richard Stager house on 
Franklin Avenue and the Rutan house on Harrison 
Street, both owned by Mrs. B. A. Hough; the Van 
Winkle house on Franklin Avenue, owned by Mrs. 
Marsh ; the Kingsland house on Harrison Street, 
owned by Mr. Abram S. Stager; the Pow house on 
the corner of Harrison Street and Passaic Avenue; 
the Sanderson house on Passaic Avenue, owned by the 
Methodist Church ; the old Speer house on Avondale 
Road near the railroad. 

Three stone mansions of a nobler fashion and a later 
date are found in Nutley. One of these, the Kings- 
land House, stands by a pond formed by the damming 
of the Yantacaw. It was built in 1796 by Joseph 
Kingsland, descendant of a younger son of Isaac 
Kingsland. He was a nephew of Major Nathaniel 
Kingsland, to whom was made the Kingsland Grant 



25 



across the Passaic in 1668.^ Major Kingsland had 
estates in Barbadoes whence his West Indian pro- 
ducts were sent to the New York markets. Reports 
were brought back to him of these fertile New Jersey- 
lands and of the liberality of the Grants and Conces- 
sions.^ He sent an agent from Barbadoes to secure a 
grant, but never came himself to Jersey. His nephew 
Isaac represented his uncle in New Barbadoes, as it 
was named, and inherited the estate at his death. After 
the Revolution, Joseph Kingsland came from New 
York to the west bank of the Passaic and purchased a 
tract of woodland, part of which was in the Nutley 
area.^ 

Mr. Kingsland set his slaves to cutting the timber, 
built a mill* to saw it, and shipped it on his sloops to 
New York to make wooden curbs for the town. The 
dock was at the mouth of Third River. Some years 
later he left New York to make his home here. In 
1796 Mr. Kingsland built a grist mill and the pictur- 
esque stone house by the pond, which was occupied by 
his descendants till 1902. 

Another spacious stone house owned by Mr. J. R. 
Hay stands in the "Enclosure"^ near the Third River. 
It was built in 1812 by John Mason, who also owned a 
cotton mill by the dam near by. The house, covered 
with ivy, stands on a knoll well back from the street. 



1 For further account of the Kingsland family and grant, see 
Whitehead's East Jersey under the Proprietors. 

2 The original constitution of Jersey under which the first settlers 
took land. See Lee's Hist, of ^. J. as a Colony and as a State. 

3 The Kingalands were most of them loyalists. 

4 A grist mill was already there. — Mrs. J. R. Hay. 

5 "Enclosure", a private park of 15 acres, containing nine resi- 
dences and the Nutley Library. 



26 



and huge willows mark where the borders of the old 
pond once extended. 

Old Nutley Manor by the Passaic is a large square 
stone mansion, overlooking one of the most beautiful 
views of the river. It was built in 1826 or 1828 by 
Peter Crary, then Mayor of New York, who gave it to 
his daughter, Mrs. James Morris.^ Mr. Morris was 
then building the Paterson and Hudson Railroad, now 
the Erie, and was President of the road.^ Mr. Morris 
bought the estate from Robert Rutgers, from whom 
Rutgers College was named, and Rutgers had pur- 
chased it in 1803 from the Dikes. Thomas W. Sat- 
terthwaite^ purchased the estate of 144 acres in 1844 
and it is still in possession of the family. 

The derivation of the name Nutley is uncertain.* 
When ''Old Franklin" wished to assume a more 
distinctive title, "Nutley" was the choice of the 
townspeople. 

Old Roads. — In the Fundamental Agreements^ of 
the Newark settlers in 1666, one of the "Highways" 
decided upon was "by the Great River Side and along 
by the Meadow." This extended northward, became 
our River Road, opened in 1707. 

In the old Road-Book of Essex County our first 
roads are found described.^ The River Road, believed 
to have been an Indian Trail, once ran close to the 
river bank in the northern part of the town.'^ It was 

1 Mr. J. Fisher Satterthwaite furnishes this account of Old Nutley 
Manor. 

2 This road was originally a horse-car line. 

3 See Shaw's Hist, of E. and H. Counties, Vol. II. 

4 Mrs. W. R. Nairn. 

5 See Newark Town Records. 

G Nelson's Passaic County Roads. 
7 Judge Theodore Sandford. 

27 



straightened about i860. The Road-Book refers to it : 
1707 — Mar. 26. — Highways laid out: ''beginning at 
the North end of Newark and running to Hock- 
quackonong, as the path now runs."^ Another road is 
thus described: 1713 — Nov. 25. Essex Roads. A. 
20. — A road laid out, "beginning at a white oak tree in 
the Queen's Road near the corner Abraham Vreeland's 
field of two Rods Wide, running to the brow of the 
Hill by Jacob Juorall's (Jeroloman's) fence, thence 
along the south side of said fence, till it comes to the 
walnut saplin that is marked; from thence by the 
line of mark trees to the third River where we have 
ordered a Bridge to be made, and from thence by a 
line of marked trees, till it meets the Old Road, and 
along said Old Road, till it goes to the Division Line 
between Derick Tolson and Simon Vanwincle, and 
along the South side of the sd line to the west corner 
of Derick Tolson's (Roelofsen's?) and from thence by 
a Line of marked trees to John Morris's East corner of 
his land, and from thence along the north side of his 
line down to the Third River." (This was doubtless 
where the road turns in at Kingsland's paper mill. — 
Nelson.) The description of an old road illustrates 
the method of laying out, so as to cut up fields as little 
as possible. Other references to roads across this 
area before 1800, in the Road-Book, are: 1739, Nov. 
13; I755» Nov. 17; 1760, July 8; 1760, Nov. 28; 1787, 
July 24. In the description of a road of 1796, there is 
mention of "Kingsland's saw mill," thus establishing 
one date at least for that early mill. 

1 "As the path now runs" in old descriptions, refers to an Indian 
trail. 

28 



The old road to Bloomfield through this area was 
opened soon after the River Road. And a little later 
was laid out the road now Passaic Avenue. South of 
the Quarry or Avondale Road it was known as 
''Spring Garden Road" and so appears in old deeds. 
There was another old road called the "Back Road" 
which crossed the southwestern part of the Nutley 
area running from Belleville to Bloomfield. 

Opening of the Revolution. — As the era of the 
Revolution drew on, these scattered farmers must 
have felt the coming storm. The Stamp Act and the 
Port Bill were subjects for meetings and remonstran- 
ces in Newark, only five miles away. 

Tory or Patriot. — As a whole the Dutch were sturdy 
patriots, coming from a land of ideals of freedom. 
Tories were many around Passaic, but the name of 
only one comes down to us from this settlement. 
Abraham Van Giesen, a substantial land-owner, "went 
over to the enemy," as the phrase was in the records 
of the "Council of Safety."^ His estate was confiscated 
and he was never heard of again.^ 

The Retreat Across the Jerseys. — It was the second 
year of the Revolution, and the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence^ was but a few months old. Washington's 
reverses in New York were disheartening. The battle 
of Long Island was lost on August 27th, 1776. Fort 
Washingtoti fell November i6th, and Washington 



1 See Stryker's Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolution. 

2 See reference to Vreeland and Speer estate, p. 31. 

3 Read for this region at the old school house on the site of the 
present Watsesslng School, Bloomfield. 



29 



crossed to Fort Lee. Cornwallis followed over the 
Hudson, and the Continental army was ordered to 
abandon Fort Lee and to retreat to the Delaware, 
"over the Essex Hills." Thus began the memorable 
"Retreat across the Jerseys" when the patriot army 
under General Washington and the pursuing British 
under General Lord Cornwallis marched through the 
region which we now call Nutley. 

Acquackanonck Bridge. — Washington had hastened 
from Fort Lee to Hackensack. To reach Newark 
the Passaic River must be crossed. The only avail- 
able bridge was at Acquackanonck (Passaic) and the 
village was rumored to be a "Tory hot-bed." A de- 
tachment was sent ahead to hold the bridge and to 
send on stores and ammunition to Morristown by way 
of Great Notch. Orders were given to destroy the 
bridge as soon as the army had crossed. The patriots 
approached with the British often so near that "the 
sound of their bugles was heard."^ Over the rude 
wooden bridge they tramped and that evening or the 
next day a force from the neighborhood destroyed the 
bridge with axes and saws and burned the approaches.* 

Washington's March through the Nutley Area. — 
Washington spent one anxious night at Acquack- 
anonck, November 21 st, 1776.^ The next day, the 22nd, 
with 3,500 men he started for Newark along the River 
Road. Near the northern limits of our area, his forces 

1 Baker's Itinerary of Washington. 

2 Entrance to Revolutionary Bridge now occupied by unused drive- 
way opening into Lower Main Avenue, Passaic, 30 feet south of oflBce 
of S. M. Birch Lumber Co. Bridge rebuilt in 1777, Present trolley 
bridge is short; distance above old site. — Pape and Scott, News' History 
of Pa>ssaic. 

3 See Washington's Writings, Letter from Acquackanonck. Head- 
quart:er8 were the old Tap House on Main Avenue, near the "Old First 
Church," burned in 1870. — Pape and Scott. 

30 



divided, one column to continue by the River Road, the 
other to go "over the hills" to Bloomfield.^ There one 
brigade remained for several days while another went 
on to Orange and thence to Newark.^ Washington 
spent six days in Newark and on November 28th, pro- 
ceeded to "Brunswic" (New Brunswick).^ His head- 
quarters in Newark are uncertain.* 

Pursuit of the British. — Cornwallis pursued in two 
divisions. One came from Hackensack to Rutherford, 
and crossed the Passaic at the ford where Delawanna 
now is, camping there for several days.^ The rest of 
the British army followed Washington through Lodi 
and Wallington to the bridge to find it destroyed and 
3,000 men on guard. They turned and crossed above 
Passaic Falls.® Cornwallis spent a week between Pas- 
saic and Newark, a week filled with carousals and rev- 
els and forages extending widely inland.'^ He took 
the River Road to Newark. "Their advance guards 
were entering the town by the time our rear got 
out," wrote Washington from "Brunswic."^ 

Flight of British in 1778. — There was another flight 
of soldiery through this region in 1778, after the battle 
of Monmouth, when the British were running before 

1 See Glover's Retreat of '76 across Bergen County. 1905. 

2 It has been claimed that Washington did not cross the Acquack- 
anonck Bridge, but approached Newark by a route on the east side of 
the river. For a discussion of this heresy and a long list of references 
to refute it, see Pape and Scott, News' Hist, of Passaic. 

3 See Washington's Writings, Letters from Newark and Brunswic. 

4 The old Eagle Tavern, Broad Street, just north of City Hall site, 
is considered the most likely place. — Atkinson's Hist, of Newark. A 
tradition exists that he stayed in camp with his men on the hill to the 
west of Broad Street. — Glover. 

5 A cannon ball recently picked up upon the grounds of the Yaun- 
takah Country Club, evidently dates from the encampment there. 

6 Pape and Scott, News' Hist, of Passaic. 

7 For Cornwallis's policy in pursuit, see Glover's Retreat of '76, 
etc. 

8 Washington's Writings, Vol. IV. 

31 



the Americans to reach the Hudson. Skirmishes took 
place at Belleville and at the restored Acquackanonck 
Bridge, the red coats escaping across it in the dark- 
ness.^ 

The Raiders and Refugees. — While the British were 
in possession of New York and Staten Island, no part 
of Jersey suffered more from raids than the banks of 
the Passaic. Farms were stripped of crops, cattle and 
sheep were driven off, and the defenceless inhabitants 
on their scattered farms were wantonly murdered in 
defending their property. So great were the terror 
and sufferings of the people of this region that a guard 
of State Militia was raised for the ^'Defense of the 
Frontiers." There was a guard house at Belleville and 
Captain Speer's company was stationed there. John 
Vreeland, grandfather of Mr. Warren Vreeland of 
Nutley^ was a River Guard who rode up and down the 
river bank on the lookout for raiders, or ''refugees"- 
as they were also called, British, Hessian, or Tory. He 
carried two huge brass-mounted pistols, one of which 
is now in Mr. Vreeland's possession, marked "J. V. 
1776." Though he often shot to frighten ''raiders," 
only once did the young soldier actually kill an invader 
across the river. 

Captain Abraham Speer. — The most striking figure 
that we can summon from dim colonial times in this 
farm and woodland region is the young Dutchman, 
Abram Speer. He was the eldest of five sons of John 
Speer of Second River, who owned a large estate in the 

1 Lee's HiM. of N. J. as a Colony an4 as a State. 

2 The term refugee was properly applied only to the Tories who 
hJid fled from their homes and who returned to ravage familiar ground. 
It was loosely applied to all raiders. 

32 



center of that village and who was a descendant of 
John Hendrick Speer, an original grantee near Hack- 
ensack and also one of the Acquackanonck patentees. 
Abram (or Abraham) came over Third River seeking 
a wife. He found her in the daughter of one Wou- 
terse or Wouters who had a blacksmith shop at Pover- 
shon. It was by the Water Cress Springs, as they are 
called to-day. In 1760 Wouters built a stone house 
near by for his daughter, and this was the home of 
Captain Speer until his death. This house, now re- 
modelled, is still occupied by a descendant.^ In Cap- 
tain Speer's day five stone houses stood around this 
corner (Bloomfield Avenue and Center Street) of 
which but two remain. The springs of delicious water 
were said to have been drinking-places of the Indians 
long ago, and to have quenched the thirst of Revolu- 
tionary soldiers on the memorable retreat.- After the 
Revolution broke out we find no record of young 
Speer until he is commissioned captain^ in the Second 
Essex Regiment on May 28, 1777, and is stationed at 
Belleville with his company to ''guard the river." It 
was his father who from the church steeple shot the 
"refugee"* across the Passaic. After the war was over 
and Captain Speer had bought the confiscated estate of 
Van Giesen, the Tory, a part of which he immediately 
sold to the Vreeland family, he became one of the 
largest land-owners of the region. In time he was 

1 Mr. Simon Tuers. 

2 The ancient laospitality of the springs is still maintained by the 
dipper and the little sign by the wayside, "Drinking Water." 

3 See Stryker's Officers and Men of N. J. in the Revolution. 

4 The refugee was an English officer going from Paulus Hook to 
Morristown. His watch, an English bull's eye, was presented to Speer 
for his marksmanship, and is now in the possession of a descendant, 
Mrs. Tucker, of Belleville. 

33 



elected Justice of the Peace, and his name is found on 
old deeds. He built a grist mill on the Yantacaw and 
also a blacksmith shop by the river at Chestnut street. 
From that time a blacksmith shop has stood in turn 
on all four corners here. The first one was on the 
southwest corner where some years ago a boy digging 
in the earth turned up hand-wrought nails and horse- 
shoes.^ 

From beyond the western hills came a young man, 
John Stager by name, to run the grist mill. He 
ground corn so successfully that he won the heart of 
his employer's eldest daughter. Young Vrouw Stager 
died early, leaving five little sons who remained with 
Captain Speer. They were brought up in his house- 
hold and eventually inherited the greater part of his 
property. Captain Speer had no sons, but four daugh- 
ters, the younger ones marrying a Pake and a Jora- 
lemon. 

One^ of the descendants of the old Dutchman re- 
members him as a very tall old man in a long snuflf- 
colored coat, always followed by "old Judge/' a huge 
dog just the color of his master's clothes. Captain 
Speer was said to be "very Dutch" in physiognomy, 
and Dutch was probably his common speech. "Fad- 
dy" and "Oty" were the names by which Captain 
Speer and his wife were called by children, grand- 
children, and neighbors. 

Another great-granddaughter^ speaks of his gener- 
ous kindly nature and of his "faculty" for "getting 
property." He owned woodlands even in Caldwell. 

1 Mr. Warren Vreeland. 

2 Mrs. Mary M. Booth. 

8 Mrs. Barbara A. Hough. 

34 



In his household he held to the patriarchal customs 
of the old Dutch settlers, where several generations 
lived under one roof, or were established in small de- 
tached buildings in the door-yard. Even his grand- 
sons brought their wives home to the old stone house. 
"Nancy," the old slave, had her separate kitchen, a 
tiny one-room stone building with a loft. Here ate and 
slept all the single men of the household and enter- 
tained their friends with unbounded hospitality. The 
cellar was hung with sides of beef and hams and pork,, 
and each household took what they wanted. A great- 
granddaughter of Captain Speer tells of the molasses 
cookies of old Nancy which she delighted to make for 
the children unto the third and fourth generation.^ An- 
other recollection is of the winter visits across the 
snow between' the widely-separated farmers, how they 
took the wood sled and all the children went, even to 
the baby. They had a "grand supper," which the elders 
ate first, while the children sat in the corners. After 
their turn came and they were surfeited, they were put 
to sleep till it was time to go home. Meanwhile till 
twelve o'clock, the grown people sat around, drank 
their grog, and played cards. At midnight the wood 
sled was reloaded and the horses turned towards home. 

Captain Speer was a member of the Dutch Reformed 
Church at Belleville. It was a regular thing for the 
family to walk the two miles or more to the church. 
The story comes down of how the three girls of this 
frugal race used to carry their shoes in their hands till 
they came to the edge of the clearing near the church. 

Captain Speer lived to be nearly ninety and died in 

1 Mrs. Mary M. Booth. 

35 



i834- In 1833 he signed a deed in the shaking hand of 
an old man. In 1835 another deed describes a piece of 
land as bordering on the ''estate of Ab™ Speer, de- 
ceased." His grave, with others of his family, lies 
under the western extension of the Reformed Church 
at Belleville. An eyewitness of the rebuilding of the 
church in 1850 tells also of the headstones laid flat 
upon the graves. 

Captain Speer's signature and that of his wife, Em- 
metche, are in existence on deeds in the possession of 
a number of his descendants in the town. While the 
house that he lived in, the pewter plates that he ate 
from and the chair that he sat on are cherished posses- 
sions of his descendants in Nutley. 

Designation of Localities. — In early days various 
localities acquired special names. North Belleville was 
a stretch along the Passaic River. Spring Garden was 
the flat from Chestnut Street to the Belleville line, 
famous for its market gardens. Povershon was the 
region around Center Street and Bloomfield Avenue 
and the hill westward. This name has given rise to 
much speculation and many anecdotes to explain it. 
The probability is that it is an old Indian or Dutch 
name, and that it was the earliest designation of local- 
ity in this area. It appears as Powershon in deeds in 
the possession of Miss Annie L. Van Winkle, dated 
1809, and of Mr. Warren Vreeland, dated 1795. 

Franklin village, named in honor of the last Royal 



36 



Governor of New Jersey, was the settlement in what 
is now the center of the town.* 

The only Dutch name that has been discovered is 
Houtteyn, meaning Hightown, applied to the western 
hill region. 

Early References to the Settlement. — In Gordon's 
Gazetteer of New Jersey, 1834, Spring Garden and 
Povershon are mentioned as follows : ''Spring Garden 
or North Belleville, Bloomfield t-ship, Essex Co., upon 
the Third River, and about a mile W. of the Passaic 
river, contains from 50 to 70 dwellings, a cotton manu- 
factory, a school and a Methodist Church." And 
"Povershon a small village of Bloomfield t-ship, Essex 
Co., 5 miles north of Newark, contains a school house 
and several dwellings. The poorhouse of the t-ship is 
in the valley near it." 

In Barber and Howe's Historical Collections, edition 
of 1852, under Belleville, we read, "Franklinville, 
formerly called Spring Garden, a flourishing little man- 
ufacturing village, contains about 25 dwellings and a 
Methodist Church." 

In the records of the Methodist Church circuit which 
included Franklin or Spring Garden the community 
here is several times mentioned in 1824 and 1825 and in 
1827 a camp meeting was held in Spring Garden on 
June i8th, and the days following.^ 

Nutley (Franklin) in the Civil War.— The call for 
volunteers in 1862 found Franklin a part of Belleville. 

1 William, son of Benjamin Franklin, was governor from 1763 to 
1776. He adhered firmly to the royal cause and was finally arrested 
for refusal to submit to the new government. He was held for two 
years and then exchanged. He returned to England in 1782, and died 
tkere In 1813. 

2 Hist, of the Franklin M. E. Sunday School, loaned by Mr. Calvin 
Rutan. 

37 



A small military company of about forty men had been 
drilling for some time under Cornelius McClees, in the 
old school house on Avondale Road.^ Twenty-six of 
this little company immediately volunteered and with 
fourteen others from Belleville marched with McClees 
to Newark to Camp Frelinghuysen. Here they were 
mustered into the State Service on September 3rd, 
1862, and were enrolled in Company C of the '26th 
New Jersey Volunteers for nine months. The regi- 
ment was made up of men from adjoining towns, 
Orange, South Orange, Bloomfield and Caldwell, each 
furnishing one company, while Newark furnished the 
remaining six. Three weeks later, after they were 
officered and equipped, they proceeded to Washington. 
Samuel H. Pemberton, of Newark, was chosen captain 
of Company C and Cornelius McClees first lieutenant. 
The "26th New Jersey" was in the three engage- 
ments before Fredericksburg, the great defeat of the 
Union troops, under General Burnside, on December 
13th, 1862, and the two minor engagements of May 3rd 
and June 5th, 1863, under General Hooker. In the 
great battle of December 13th, as raw troops, they 
faced the terrific fire of the Confederate batteries, and 
for three nights lay down upon their arms. They also 
took part in the memorable "mud march" back to 
Camp. After the season in winter quarters near Belle 
Plain they again took the field, and eventually captured 
and held the Heights of Fredericksburg.^ The regi- 

1 The facts of this account have been verified by Mr. McClees, now 
a resident of Passaic. After the war Military Hall was used for drills. 

2 For a detailed history of the service of the New .Jersey Volun- 
teers, see Essex County In the War of 1861-65, Shaw's Hist, of B. and 
H. Counties. Also Foster's New Jersey in the Rebellion, and Stryker's 
Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Civil War. 

38 



ment returned to Newark when their term of enlist- 
ment expired and was mustered out September 19th, 

1863. 

Seven Franklin men were enrolled in the 39th New 
Jersey Volunteers. They enlisted at Newark from 
Camp Frelinghuysen and left for the South in detach- 
ments, in October, 1864. The 39th Regiment was in 
the long and terrible siege of Petersburg and as- 
sisted in the capture of Fort Mahone, April 2, 1865. A 
part of the regiment was transferred to the 33rd New 
Jersey Volunteers, and discharged with that regiment. 
The remainder were mustered out near Alexandria, 
Va., June 17, 1865. 

Four Franklin men were enlisted in the ist New 
York Mounted Rifles. The companies forming this 
regiment were organized in New York State and 
mustered into service in 1861 and 1862. The ist New 
York Mounted Rifles took part in the operations 
against Petersburg and Richmond, and in a great 
number of minor engagements. In 1865, they were 
consolidated with the 3rd New York Cavalry Regi- 
ment, forming the 4th Provisional Cavalry.^ 

Veterans of Nutley. — The names of the men of 
Franklin who fought in the struggle for the Union are 
here given in a list that has been carefully revised. 
Before many years it is to be hoped that some imper- 
ishable memorial may honor these names and keep 
them constantly before the younger generations whose 
country they helped to preserve. 

To the names of those who enlisted from Franklin 
are added a number of residents who enlisted else- 

1 See New York in the Rebellion. 
39 



where, and a few veterans who have become residents 
here since the war. 

Men of Nutley (Franklin) in the Civil War. 

26th Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers, Company C. 
First Lieutenant. .Cornelius McClees 

First Sergeant George H. Stager* 

Corporals Joshua W. Dodd* 

James R. Rutan, also in 2nd New 
York, Harris Light Cavalry. 
Privates Henry Ackerman'^ 

James Blair''' 

Hiram M. Booth 

Garrett Brown* 

Henry Brown* 

Stephen Brown* 

Robert Day* 

Frederick Jenkins* 

James McGirr* 

Horace Mesler 

William E. Oueman 

Abraham Riker* 

Jacob Riker 

Calvin Rutan 

Abraham H. Stager 

William H. Stager* 

George Surgent 

George Kingsland* 

James H. Cunningham* (killed at 
Fredericksburg) 

• Deceased. 

40 



Simon Tuers 

Robert Williams 

Jacob Labaugh 

Richard V. Cueman 

Thomas Hennen 
39TH Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers. 
Privates John Corb, also in 25th, N. J. V. 

David Jenkins 

Enoch Booth* 

John Hanily 

John Garrabrant 

Michael Gaffney 

Garrett L. Stager 
1ST New York Mounted Rifles. 

Samuel M. Brown 

George Pollock 

William H, Speer* 

Herman Brown 
Franklin Men Who Enlisted in Other Regiments. 
Bryan Carroll* 
David McGirr* 

Hiram Brown, loth Reg., New Jersey Volunteers 
Stephen P. Vreeland, 2nd Reg. New York Volunteer 

Cavalry 
John Donaldson** 

James Jenkins, 3rd Reg., New Jersey Cavalry 
Charles A. Pierce* 
Byron Lawton*** 
William Sargent 
William Conover* 

• Deceased. 

•• Died In service. 

••• Died in action. 

41 



J. Fisher Satterthwaite, 7th Reg., New York Volun- 
teers and 22nd Reg., New Jersey Volunteers. 
Charles Jacobus* 
William Fleming 

Other Resident Veterans. 
Robert P. Travis, 9th, 83rd and 94th New York Vol- 
unteers. 
A. M. Hallidy, 2nd Regiment, District of Columbia. 
William Clark 

George W. Symonds, 12th New York State Volunteers. 
Henry G. Prout, 57th Massachusetts Infantry. 

For some years a Veterans' Association was main- 
tained in this town. Many of the resident veterans be- 
long to Garfield Post, Newark. 

The Separation from Belleville. — The people of this 
little area successively withdrew from larger to smaller 
and closer municipal relations. The desire for entire 
independence was the natural end of their repeated 
"secessions." In this respect the history of Nutley 
presents a curious exception to the general tendency 
of the times, where smaller municipalities consolidate 
with larger ones, instead of separating from them. 
The intense public spirit of Nutley and the share taken 
in public affairs by the best class of the citizens goes 
far to justify its exceptional municipal position. 

Thirty-three years ago, the taxpayers of this part of 
Belleville felt much dissatisfied with their assess- 
ments and their allotment for public works. A move- 
ment for separation arose. A large public meeting was 
held and a committee waited on the governor who ap- 
pointed a commission from Belleville and Franklin to 

* Deceased. 

42 



consider the matter. A bill was soon introduced into 
the Legislature for a formal separation. Opposition 
was naturally offered by Belleville interests and the 
line of division was with difficulty agreed upon. But 
the bill as originally drafted was finally passed, 
March 12th, 1874, and the Township of Franklin came 
into existence, with a population of about 1500.^ 

Extracts from the First Amiual Report of Franklin 
Township.- — "Valuation reported by County Board 
of Assessors, $762,000. Total amount asked for the 
running of the town, $9,000. Poll tax, $4. Total re- 
ceipts from all sources, $11,000. Road districts laid 
out, 5. The year's outlay on roads and sidewalks, 

$535.10-" 

Greenwood Lake Railroad Suit. — Among the mat- 
ters brought up for settlement between Belleville and 
Franklin was the question of Franklin's liability for a 
portion of the debt incurred by Belleville in the build- 
ing of the Greenwood Lake Railroad (now a branch 
of the Erie). Suit was brought by Belleville. A long 
litigation followed to be decided in the New Jersey 
Supreme Court against Franklin in 1885. The infant 
township was obliged to issue bonds to satisfy the 
claim of $7,000. 

Hard Roads. — In 1891, the demand for hard roads 
became so imperative that a bond issue of $50,000 was 
authorized for road improvements. The excitement 
over the question of narrow or wide Macadam roads 
ran high, and causes this to be remembered as one of 
the historic contests of the town's existence. 

1 state census of 1875 gives population of Franklin as 1,556. 

2 In possession of Mr. Richard W. Booth, who has a complete file 
of Franklin Town Reports. 

43 



Board of Health. — The Board, as organized at the 
formation of the township in 1874, was reorganized in 
1892. A Sanitary Code was then formulated which has 
been used until the .present year. The rapid increase 
of population has made the old regulations inadequate. 
A new Sanitary Code has just been issued, which is 
printed and distributed to every householder. 

Attempted Separation of a Borough. — An episode of 
1894 was a movement to form a borough from the 
northeastern portion of the town. The proposition 
was defeated. 

New Charter and Name. — In 1901 the town had 
grown to 4,000 inhabitants and it was felt that the 
Town form of government offered definite advantages 
over the Township form. A bill was introduced into 
the legislature petitioning for the change of form and 
also for the change of name to Nutley. This bill was 
passed March 5th, 1902, and the Town of Nutley suc- 
ceeded to the Township of Franklin. 

History of the Schools. — In early days in Franklin 
there were two school districts separated by the Yan- 
tacaw River, and known as the Upper and the Lower. 
Later five districts were recognized. In 1894 the 
School Law did away with district divisions in town- 
ships. 

In the Lower District, a one-story stone schoolhouse 
was built about 1794 on land given "for school pur- 
poses" by John K. Speer, at Passaic Avenue and Avon- 
dale Road. The school which moved into this building 
had already been organized a number of years and had 
occupied a site on the Avondale Road opposite Phil- 



44 



lips's quarry. The present Avondale Schoolhouse re- 
places the old stone building. 

The "Old Red Schoolhouse" in the Povershon or 
Upper District stood at the corner of Center Street and 
Bloomfield Avenue. After years of service in this spot, 
about 1844, it was moved bodily to Elm street, near 
the present School Park. The next step was a frame 
schoolhouse for the "upper district" built on Church 
street, in 1856, whose second story was used for 
some years by the Reformed Church. This building 
was burned in 1874 and in 1875 was rebuilt in brick. 

In early days the expenses of the schools were de- 
frayed by district taxation on the basis of each family's 
attendance, a system then in use in most of the middle 
States. 

In 1890, the present School Park of twelve acres was 
purchased for $15,000. Several mills stood here, one of 
which was retained and remodelled. A graded school 
system was adopted in this year. What is now the 
Town Hall was used for the first High School. Ac- 
commodations for the increasing numbers of the 
children were soon inadequate and The Park School 
was built and opened in 1894. The School Park affords 
a fine athletic field or ball ground which is used by the 
public as well as by the school children. 

The Yantacaw School was build and opened in 1902. 

The growth of the town has been rapid and soon 
these four school houses were overcrowded. By the 
beginning of 1906, rooms were used in various places 
for extra classes, and the subject of increased school 
accommodation overshadowed all other public ques- 
tions. In February the town met the demand by 

45 



voting $52,500 to enlarge The Park School and to re- 
model the Avondale School, thus adding seventeen new 
rooms. The excitement over this ''school election" 
will not soon be forgotten in Nutley. It was the first 
occasion in the town when women in any numbers 
made use of their privilege to vote on school questions. 

The school course covers thirteen years, complying 
with state and county requirements, and comprises one 
year kindergarten, four years primary, four years 
grammar, and four years high school, fitting for all 
colleges and scientific schools. 

The School Library, established under a small state 
and town appropriation, is an excellent selection of 
over 1,700 standard works, free to the public. 

Churches. — It was long the custom for the dwellers 
in this area to journey to Newark or to Belleville for 
their church privileges. At Belleville the Dutch Re- 
formed Church dated from 1725 ; Christ Church, Pro- 
testant Episcopal, from 1746; Methodist services from 
1792, the church from 1803; St. Peter's Roman Catho- 
lic Church from 1838. Before any church society was 
organized or church edifice built, there existed in this 
region a unique Sunday School whose scope is shown 
by an old paper, a fac-simile of which appears in a 
'Tlistory of the Franklin M. E. Sunday School" : 

"Subscriptions and Donations 

For the support of the sabbath school established in 

Spring Gardens, May 16, 1829, 

For the Instruction of Children belonging to all 

Denominations." 

This "sabbath school" was soon followed by the open- 

46 



ing of schools for the different denominations and 
marked the beginnings of the several churches. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church is the oldest society 
and church edifice in Nutley. The first church was 
built in 1830, the present structure in 1853. The 
society became a separate charge from Belleville in 
1849. A nev^ church is soon to be erected. A cemetery 
adjoins the present church. 

The Dutch Reformed Church v^as organized in 1855, 
the church built in i860. For a number of years before 
this services had been held in one of the school houses 
by a pastor from a neighboring town. A cemetery is 
adjacent to the church. 

Grace Church (Protestant Episcopal) was organized 
and built its church edifice in 1873. Before this time, 
for several years, services had been held in a school- 
house or in the Methodist Church. The present church 
is inadequate and will soon be replaced by a stone 
structure on another site. 

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church at Avondale 
(East Nutley) was built in 1876. 

St. Paul's Congregational Church was organized in 
1894. The church edifice was built in 1898. 

Post Office Facilities.— Before 1840, the inhabitants 
of this area went to Belleville for their mail. The first 
advance towards post ofiice privileges was a mail bag 
brought once a day to ''old Franklin." The mail was 
distributed from a store in a central location for the 
next nine years. The first regularly appointed post 
office was established at Franklin (Nutley), July 17th, 
1849; the second at Avondale (East Nutley) August 



47 



igth, 1873.^ The present Nutley post office is of the 
Third Grade and is located in the Town Hall. The 
East Nutley office, of the Fourth Grade, is in the rail- 
road station. 

The Mills of Nutley, Old and New.— The water 
power and the sandstone were the foundations of the 
early as well as the later industries of Nutley. 

The Bradbury who built the first portion of the Van 
Riper house, is said to have had a grist mill on Third 
River, but where it stood has been long forgotten.^ 
This is supposed to have been many years before the 
Revolution. 

Captain John Speer's saw mill, grist mill and tannery 
combined, was located on Third River at Vreeland 
Avenue. This and the Kingsland saw mill were built 
just after the Revolution. Captain Speer's saw mill had 
neither cogwheel nor pulley in it, yet sawed pine boards 
and veneers which were "carted" to New York, on the 
corduroy road across the marshes. An old account 
book, in the possession of Mr, Warren Vreeland, tells 
of sales from this mill. Mr. Vreeland also has a plan 
of the rude machinery from which he can describe its 
working. The millstones of the old grist mill lie to the 
present day at the bottom of the river, just where they 
fell when their work was done.^ This mill, after a long 
rest, was remodelled to manufacture cotton goods and 
the pond became known as the Cotton Mill Pond. 

Farther upstream, on Third River, was the Abraham 
Speer grist mill, and many years after, in 1853, were 
built the woolen mills near the south boundary. The 

1 Information from IT. S. Post Office Department. 

2 Possibly the grist mill that Joseph Kingsland found on Third 
River was that of Bradbury. See p. 36. 

3 Mr. Warren Vreeland. 

48 



woolen mills still go on, but the others have long 
passed away. On what is now The Park School prop- 
erty, was situated a large shawl and blanket factory, 
started in 1852. The shawls were embroidered by the 
women of the surrounding country, some of whom 
came from as far as Pompton on foot. 

A grist mill on a pond of Basking (Bearskin) Creek 
has gone since the last flood carried away the dam, and 
the saw mill and grist mill of long ago, on Kingsland's 
Pond, are replaced by modern factories just across the 
county line. The tannery and shoe factory in the 
southeastern part of the town, where shoes were made 
for Washington's army, are also but a memory ; while 
the mills for the manufacture of fine paper, which were 
established in the northern part of the town in 1812, 
are still in prosperous activity. Some of the other ar- 
ticles that are or have been manufactured in Nutley 
(Franklin) besides those of the old mills are hats, sand 
paper, matches, leather goods, cutlery, steel, lubricating 
oils, chemicals, stove polish and buttons. 

The Quarries. — It is not known how early the first 
quarries were opened in the Nutley area. In many parts 
of Essex County the red or gray sandstone was taken 
out for building purposes before 1700. With the Van 
Zandt House and the Vreeland Homestead, probably 
200 years old, we can be certain that sandstone was 
quarried somewhere in this area or near it by 1700. 
The several active quarries of Nutley are all near the 
Passaic River. Two abandoned quarries are found in 
the town Hmits. In the northeastern part of the town 
an excavation was carried to a great depth when a 
spring was encountered which led to the stopping of 

49 



further work. The vast hole contains an unknown 
depth of water, black as ink. The old King quarry, 
near the Belleville line, has been untouched for over 
sixty years and appears as a ravine thickly overgrown 
with trees and bushes. 

Slavery. — A few slaves are well remembered in this 
region. Joseph Kingsland cut the wood upon his 
estate with slave labor, and it is related, by one of his 
descendants,^ that he had four slaves who were freed 
in 1820. The Gradual Emancipation Act of 1804 and 
the Abolition Act of 1846 enabled slavery to exist in 
isolated cases in New Jersey until the Thirteenth 
Amendment. The last two slaves owned in this town 
were Black Nancy and her husband. The wife 
belonged to Captain Speer and was given her freedom 
at his death (1834). Her husband was owned by 
Daniel Van Winkle and died in captivity. Black Nancy 
was old and decrepit when she received her freedom. 
Under the law she could not be sent to the poor house 
as a pauper but must be supported by her former own- 
ers. She was accordingly provided for from the estate 
of Captain Speer until her death. 

A bill of sale for a negro, dated 1808, is in the posses- 
sion of Mrs. Jared Speer of this town. 

The Passaic River." — The ''Avon of New Jersey" the 
earlier lovers of the river called it, a name perpetuated 
in *'Avondale" (East Nutley). Poets of sixty years ago 
extolled the charms of the river; and Washington 
Irving wrote delightfully of the beauties of the Pas- 
saic, while he execrated the mosquitoes of Newark.^ 

1 Mrs. James R. Hay. ^ , 

2 "The Story of the Passaic River" was read at Old Nutley Manor^ 

3 In Salamag-undi Papers. 

50 



The Passaic is by far the most important river of the 
state and has a course of ninety miles from its source 
in the Great Swamp in Morris County to its mouth at 
Newark Bay. It receives two tributaries from the Nut- 
ley area besides the Yantacaw. One of these, on the 
southern boundary, is nameless, the other is called 
Darby Brook. 

Though slow and sluggish for much of its course, the 
Passaic has enormous hydraulic force from its two 
great waterfalls, Little Falls and the Passaic Falls. 
Since records have been kept, the Passaic River has 
been known to overflow its banks in great floods about 
once in twenty years, though showing each spring a 
considerable rise. Narrow gorges above with low 
meadow lands below, combined with the rapid gradient 
of tributaries afford the necessary conditions. The 
most disastrous recent flood was that of 1902 when the 
Nutley shores of the Passaic as well as the banks of the 
tributary streams shared in the calamities of the cities 
of Paterson and Passaic. 

The Passaic River was famous for its fish till the 
water became foul about twenty years ago. The In- 
dians resorted to the river for their winter supplies, a 
custom kept up by the white settlers. Shad, perch, 
roach-herring, bass, catfish, sunfish, smelts and even 
sturgeon, called ''Albany Beef," were caught in enor- 
mous quantities.^ 

This beautiful stream has the reputation of being the 
worst polluted river in the world. But it has been 
pointed out that as the contamination is largely chem- 
ical, it is not unsanitary in proportion to its color. 

1 See Holmes' Reminiscences of 75 years in Belleville, Frwnlilin 
and Newark. 



However, the sentiment that the river must be re- 
stored to its pristine purity has prevailed. The act of 
the Legislature passed in March, 1906, w^ill put a stop 
to its contamination, and in a few years, it is to be 
hoped, the words of Peter Sluyter, in 1679, will again 
come true. He wrote to his friends in Holland, "The 
river is the pleasantest we have yet seen^ it being a 
pleasure to look upon its everchanging views, its ever- 
greens of pine and cedar and its clean bottom and 
fresh clear water." 

Growth and Development of Nutley. — The increase 
of population, building operations and valuation since 
the incorporation has been remarkable. In thirty 
years the population has increased from 1,500 to nearly 
5,000. The valuation in the same time has grown from 
$762,000 to $3,875,939. Woodland and farm, but four- 
teen miles from New York, were not long to lie undis- 
covered after the railroad was opened in 1872. River 
scenery and vistas to green hills, wooded slopes and 
hurrying brooks, valley and plain and height, all are 
found in the narrow limits of Nutley. As the town has 
grown, to the gifts of Nature have been added the 
orderly beauty of cultivation. Lawns and shrubbery 
and flowers surround well-appointed homes on the hill- 
sides and in the valleys. 

The Improvement Society. — The ladies of Nutley or- 
ganized a society in 1901 to preserve the natural beau- 
ties of the town and to add to them. The trees which 
are the glory of Nutley, of charming variety and of un- 
usual height and symmetry, are their especial care. 
Vines and flowering shrubs have been planted around 
the railroad stations, the Town Hall, the schoolhouses, 

52 



and at the approaches to bridges. Rubbish is cleared 
up in streets and vacant lots. Seats have been placed at 
important corners along the trolley line. Prizes are 
offered annually for best-kept grounds. Funds are 
raised from annual dues and benefit entertainments. 

Newspapers of Nutley. — The "Franklinite," a small 
single sheet, started in 1890, was the first evidence of 
newspaper enterprise in Franklin (or Nutley). This 
little paper was edited by Mr. E. F. Bassford and 
printed on a small press by Mr. W. C. Ryan. The 
*'Franklinite" was published at varying intervals till 
1893, when it was consolidated with the ''Nutley Re- 
view." 

The ''Nutley Review" was started in October, 1892, 
by Mr/C. D. Bailey and Mr. J. Smith, Mr. Smith soon 
retired, disapproving of the "radical" policy of Mr. 
Bailey. The latter's extreme views soon brought his 
paper into disfavor, and he desired to merge it with the 
"Franklinite." This was accomplished in 1893, and the 
"Nutley Review" was the name retained. Mr. Bailey 
continued as manager and Mr. Bassford as editor. On 
account of the serious illness of Mr. Bailey, however, 
the "Nutley Review" soon came to an end. 

In a few months, another little paper appeared, called 
the "Rising Sun," established by Mr. G. R. Miller. The 
editor used most of his space for a long serial poem 
composed by himself. When the poem was finished, 
Mr. Miller, finding himself out of favor with his fellow- 
townsmen, sold his paper to Mr. William Taylor, 
brother of Bayard Taylor. The "Rising Sun" now be- 
came the "Nutley Sun" and was enlarged and im- 
proved. In 1900, Mr. Taylor assigned his interests to 

53 



Mr. J. D. Foy, who made the *'Sun" the "Legal Paper 
of the Town of Nutley." Under this last ownership 
the paper has been developed into a substantial success. 

"The Nutleyan" is the latest newspaper of Nutley, 
started in September, 1906. 

Authors and Artists who have lived in Nutley.* — 
The two names that head the list of Nutley authors are 
Frank R. Stockton and Henry C. Bunner. Stockton 
was born in Philadelphia in 1834. He was one of nine- 
teen children. His mother, who was his father's second 
wife, brought to the old New Jersey stock a mixture of 
French and Irish blood, which may partly account for 
the capricious charm of Stockton's fancies. His father 
was a fierce controversialist, writing stinging pamph- 
lets against the Jesuits, slavery, intemperance, and 
having a special abhorrence of novels. When Frank 
emerged from a mischievous boyhood, he began to 
study engraving on wood. Even then he wrote fairy 
stories, and contributed to some of the New York 
papers. In i860, he married Miss Marion Tuttle of 
Virginia and soon after came to Nutley to live. About 
this time he took a position on Hearth and Home, 
and in 1873 became associate editor of St. 'Nicholas. 
*'Rudder Grange" was at first a story which he wrote 
for Scribner's. Its cordial reception led him to en- 
large it to the present delightful volume. This was the 
first book he wrote for "grown-ups," although the 
elders had long been reading his children's tales with 
delight. Then followed years of giving out his unique 
stories, quaint, impossible fancies told in a straight- 

1 This account was made up largely from personal reminiscences 
of residents of the town, and from letters in answer to inquiries from 
the authors and artists themselves or their families. 

54 



forward, matter-of-fact manner which made any 
questioning of their probability seem quite preposter- 
ous. Eggleston said there was one chamber of Stock- 
ton's mind denied to other brains. "The Lady and the 
Tiger," written, so it has been said, for an evening 
party at Mr. Boardman's in Nutley^ has been transla- 
ted into many languages, and one day in India a group 
of Hindoos were heard gravely discussing the probable 
fate of the hero. Stockton came to Nutley because of 
his friendship for Mr. William H, Boardman, who is 
the boarder in ''Rudder Grange." The Stocktons lived 
in the house on Walnut Street near Nutley Avenue, 
lately occupied by Mr. Fenton. The following is its 
description by Mrs. Stockton, the delightful Euphemia 
of his tales. ''The first place in which we set up our 
household goods was at Nutley, N, J. Our dwelling 
there was a pretty little cottage where we had a gar- 
den, some chickens, and a cow. This was our home 
during his editorial days, and here 'Rudder Grange' was 
written." Here also he wrote a number of his other 
stories. One called "Our Archery Club" was written 
from experiences in the Nutley Archery Club which 
was the forerunner of the present Field Club. Stock- 
ton's archery equipment cost something like $103.10. 
When he took this story to the publishers he asked to 
a penny what his outfit had cost him, no more, no less. 
In the same way, he dug a well at his next house at 
Convent, New Jersey, which cost him, perhaps, $320.23. 
He wrote a story about it, asking and receiving exactly 
that amount in payment. Mr. Boardman recalled how 
on a certain Sunday morning he was awakened by 
hearing his name called. Looking out he saw Mr. 

55 



Stockton crossing the street from his home carrying 
under his arm a black hen. He proceeded to tell Mr. 
Boardman how they had broken the spareroom wash- 
bowl and not caring to spend money for a new one, he 
offered this guaranteed setting-hen for a washbowl. A 
long dickering and discussion of terms followed result- 
ing eventually in the transfer of the articles. Euphem- 
ia's elaborate chicken-raising may be remembered. To 
the account in "Rudder Grange," it should be added 
that the Stocktons named their chickens after writers, 
and still called them by their names when they reached 
the table. Later, Stockton lived at Convent and at 
Madison, N. J., where he could have a more complete 
country life. A few years before his death he became 
the possessor of a beautiful estate in West Virginia, 
Claymont. The land had been owned and the house 
designed by Washington, and for that reason it was 
twice spared from destruction in the Civil War. Stock- 
ton died in 1902 in the full maturity of his 
powers, with the popularity of his works and per- 
sonality at its height. "There was no bitterness in his 
humor ; he was neither a satirist nor a preacher nor a 
teacher." His writings had absolutely no motive but 
to beguile wearied hearts and brains away for a little 
into summer lands of unreality. There everything 
speaks of simplicity, sweetness and humor, and every 
perplexity has a happy ending. Mrs. Stockton, the 
bright Euphemia, died in November, 1906, at her home 
in Washington. 

The principal works of Stockton are Rudder Grange, 
The Rudder Grangers Abroad, The Lady or the Tiger, 
The Late Mrs. Null, The Casting Away of Mrs. Leeks 

56 



and Mrs. Aleshine, The Dusantes, The Hundredth 
Man, Personally Conducted, The Merry Chanter, The 
Squirrel Inn, The Watchman's Wife, Pomona's 
Travels. 

Mr, Henry C. Bunner was not born in Nutley, but he 
lived here many years before his death in 1896. Much 
of his poetry and story-telling breathes the atmosphere 
of his adopted neighborhood. He was born in Os- 
wego, New York, in 1855. He was educated in New 
York and started upon a business career. Finding this 
most uncongenial he entered journalism in 1873, ^"^ 
began his editorship of Puck in 1877. The first edi- 
torial outfit consisted of himself and a desk. "Here he 
was responsible for everything, letter press, mechan- 
ical make-up, and many times he wrote half the num- 
ber himself. For ten years he poured into it an endless 
stream of matter, and was ready for anything at a 
moment's notice." With his wit and humor he had 
nevertheless the gentle delicacy of the poet, and it is 
perhaps by his verses that he will be longest remem- 
bered. Bunner dearly loved his Nutley home. It was 
the house now owned by Mr. Barron on Whitford 
Avenue. Every nook and corner of the house, every 
inch of garden was dear to him. He built the little 
log cabin for his daughter Nancy. He is accused of 
having had thirteen different kinds of fence, each with 
some pet purpose of its own. He writes to Lawrence 
Hutton, "When you push your way up the Passaic 
Valley where Irving, Hofifman, and Frank Forrester 
lived, come up and see a fellow named Bunner, who 
lives up that way in the House of Spare Bedrooms. 
We've vaccinated a baby to-day, we keep a pig, two 

57 



dogs, two cats and are contemplating a donkey." Mr. 
Bunner's warmth of heart was shown in his instruc- 
tions to the doctor of the town that he might call on 
him for any expense in connection with the illness of 
his needy patients. To make this help more lasting he 
originated the plan of an entertainment, the proceeds 
of which were to go to a Red Cross Fund for Nutley. 
This famous Amateur Circus brought into its pro- 
gram all the available talent of the town. It was a 
memorable occasion for Nutley. The railroad even 
ran special trains to bring people from New York and 
the adjoining towns. 

Bunner's principal works are The Midge, Airs from 
Arcady, Natural Selection, Story of a New York 
House^ Short Sixes, Zadoc Pine, Jersey Street and 
Jersey Lane, and The Suburban Sage. 

Passing from Stockton and Bunner we find a long 
list of Nutley names, famous beyond our borders. 
Most of these belong to quiet authors and artists ; but 
a few suggest careers of adventure and daring. 

A native of Nutley is Dr. H. H. Rusby, Professor 
of Materia Medica, University and Bellevue Medical 
College; Professor of Botany, Physiology and 
Materia Medica in the New York College of Pharm- 
acy, Columbia University; Curator of the Museum 
of the New York Botanical Garden, and member of 
many learned societies at home and abroad. Dr. Rus- 
by when but a boy showed a great interest in botany. 
He began the formation of an Essex County herb- 
arium, which, finished in after years, received a 
Centennial medal as the most complete offered from a 
single locality. In 1879 the New Jersey Botanical 

58 



Club was formed with Dr. Rusby as its President. In 
1880 he was sent by the Smithsonian Institute to the 
southwest to explore the flora of that region. In 1885 
he was commissioned to visit South America, to in- 
vestigate the medicinal plants of the Amazon. Alto- 
gether he has contributed several hundred new species 
to our pharmacopoeia. He has written a number of 
important books on Plants and Materia Medica and a 
still larger number of pamphlets and scientific articles, 
as well as a "History of the New York College of 
Pharmacy." 

Before Henry Goslee Prout came to Nutley, life 
furnished him with many romantic episodes. He 
served through the Civil War and when there was no 
more fighting to be done, he entered the University of 
Michigan, graduating with the degree of Civil En- 
gineer in 1871. In 1873, when the Khedive of Egypt 
sent for an American engineer to become a Major of 
Engineers in the army of Egypt, Prout was chosen. 
"Our job," he says, "was to start a meridian line to 
be run from the great pyramid north to the sea, to be 
the backbone of a survey of the Delta. An episode of 
this was the erection of a flagstaff on the top of the 
Great Pyramid, which still stands there covered with 
the names of tourists and probably there is not a man 
in Egypt who knows who put it there or why." While 
in Darfour, Prout was ordered to the head of the Nile 
to take over the command of the Equatorial Provinces 
which Gordon relinquished on being made Governor- 
General of the Soudan. The Equatorial Provinces, 
however, being soon brought under the Soudan Gk)v- 
ernment, Prout came to serve under Gordon. He was 

59 



rapidly promoted to the rank of Colonel, his com- 
mand extending to the Great Lakes or about one 
thousand miles as the Nile runs. His troops were 
about three thousand Arabs and negroes. Within a 
year, Colonel Prout came down with the fever and 
Gordon sent him to London to build steamers. These 
steamers were the first to go up the Nile. Before he 
could return, the Khedive had abdicated, the whole 
Upper Nile project was given up, and so Prout re- 
signed. Khartoum fell and Gordon perished. Return- 
ing to this country, Colonel Prout became editor-in- 
chief of the Railroad Gazette, a post which he held for 
a number of years. 

L. Frank Tooker has been for many years one of the 
editorial staff of the Century. He built for himself 
the house now occupied by Mr. Root, on Nutley Ave- 
nue. Among his poems are '^Aspiration," "The Call of 
the Sea/' "Homeward Bound," and "On Gilgo Beach." 

The lovers of "David Harum" will perhaps be sur- 
prised to know that they owe that popular story to 
the discrimination of a Nutley critic. The manu- 
script of that work, after repeated rejections by others, 
reached the hands of Mr. Ripley Hitchcock, then reader 
for Appleton's. The simple trick of transferring the 
famous horse-trading chapters from the middle of the 
book to the beginning gave it the needed send-off, and 
once started, it was an undoubted success. Mr. Hitch- 
cock and his gifted wife, Martha Hitchcock, after- 
wards dramatized the novel for William Crane. They 
lived some time in the house now owned by Mrs. 
Bayne. They took a most active interest in everything 
that pertained to the town, in home, church or club 

60 



life. Mr. Hitchcock was born in Fitchburg, Mass., in 
1857. He first became a special correspondent to the 
New York Tribune, then art critic on the Tribune 
from 1887 to 1890, when he became Hteiary adviser to 
Appleton and Company. He has been a writer upon 
American history, art and literature. Mrs. Hitchcock 
has published a number of delightful poems, among 
which are "Fruition" and "Revelation." 

The house known as the "Annie Oakley House" was 
the home later of Richard Kendall Munkittrick, the 
"Dean of the Poets of Printing House Square." He 
was born in Manchester^ England, in 1853. He was 
on the editorial staff of Puck from 1889, and has been 
editor of Judge since 1901. He is well known as a 
writer of humorous verses. His best qualities are 
shown in his poems of "The Moon Prince and other 
Nabobs" and "New Jersey Arabian Nights." 

Nutley has always had the reputation of being a 
favorite home for artists. Frank Fowler, Arthur 
Hoeber, Albert Sterner, Francis L. Day, E. L. Field, 
Frederick Dana Marsh, Frederick Dorr Steele, Hamil- 
ton Hamilton, Harry Chase, Charles Kendrick and 
Ferdinand H. Lungren are of the number. 

Mr. Kendrick is an Englishman, whose work is 
largely the illustration of children's books. His home 
was the house now occupied by Mr. Guy Edwords. 

Mr. Day has his home and studio on Maple Place, 
He has a reputation as a portrait painter and illus- 
trator. 

Mr. Chase was a well-known painter of marines, 
He lived in the Stockton house for several years. He 



61 



is most pleasantly remembered by his former friends 
here, and his untimely death was deeply deplored. 

A little house on Vreeland Avenue has sheltered 
three successive artists, who have set up their easels 
in the old barn with a skylight. Here Mrs. Florence, 
an Englishwoman of much talent and personal charm, 
lived and painted until her husband's death. Hamilton 
Hamilton was the second occupant. He is widely 
known as a landscape painter and etcher. George 
Waldo, an American of New England family, lived 
here also. His portrait of the actress Modjeska hangs 
in the Players' Club. 

Mr. E. L. Field built the house on Walnut Street 
which was his home. It is now occupied by Mr. Steele, 
the artist. Mr. Field studied in Paris, lived a good deal 
abroad, and was well-known as an etcher. 

Ralph Goddard was the only sculptor in Nutley's 
history. One of his best works was a life-size figure of 
a vigorous youth eager for the race of life. 

Mr. Lungren only recently left Nutley for Califor- 
nia. His has been an adventurous life in the West 
and among the Indians. He is an adopted son of 
one tribe and is a priest of the Antelopes. Distinctly 
a painter of the south and southwest, his pictures are 
brilliant with the rose color of the cafion and the blue 
of the Arizona sky. 

The present residence and studio of Mr. Marsh in 
the ''Enclosure" was built by Mr. Frank Fowler for 
himself. Here he lived until the death of his talented 
wife, who was herself a painter, musician and writer. 

Mr. Fowler was born in Brooklyn in 1852. He 
studied in Florence and in Paris where he was chosen 

62 



by Carolus Duran to aid him in painting the Luxem- 
bourg frescoes of the Apotheosis of Marie de Medici. 
His fame as a portrait painter is well known. His 
sitters have been many of them distinguished people. 
Everyone in Nutley felt a proprietorship in the frescoes 
of the Waldorf-Astoria which Mr. Fowler was com- 
missioned to make for the smaller ball-room. Weekly 
excursions were made to watch their progress at his 
Nutley studio, and the dancing nymphs and fawns 
look pleasantly familiar to his old friends as they now 
adorn the ceiling in the great hotel. 

The Fowler Studio did not long stand vacant before 
Frederick Dana Marsh took possession of it. Mr. 
Marsh was born in Chicago in 1872 and studied at the 
Art Institute of that city. He has studied in Paris 
and worked in his own studio there. He returned to 
America in 1900 and is obtaining recognition as a 
painter of unusual imagination. It is at Nutley that 
he has started out on a path quite untrodden by others, 
the portrayal of the life that goes on in connection with 
great commercial industries. He paints "the laborer at 
work on iron beam or bridge, swinging high in the air," 
working fearlessly eighteen stories high on the sky 
scraper, or "delving in cavernous mines with pickaxe 
and shovel, men heroes every day, working with un- 
conscious dignity at their perilous tasks." 

Mr. Hoeber, whose picturesque home is in Nut- 
ley's "Enclosure" has an almost equal talent for 
painting and writing. Although painting, especially of 
landscape, is preeminently his chosen field, he is also a 
well-known critic. He was born in New York in 1854, 
studied there and later in Paris under Gerome. In 1882 

63 



he first exhibited at the Paris Salon. He is a contribu- 
tor to most American exhibitions. He has been art 
critic on the New York Times, associate editor and 
dramatic critic of the Illustrated American, editorial 
writer of the New York Journal, and is at the pre- 
sent time art critic for the New York Globe and 
Commercial Advertiser. He is the author of two 
books, 'Treasures of the Metropolitan Museum of 
Art" and "Painting in the Nineteenth Century in 
France, Belgium, Spain and Italy." Of late years Mr. 
Hoeber has devoted himself almost entirely to painting 
landscapes. He especially delights in "streams wind- 
ing through marshy land under a twilight or a sunset 
sky, pictures which seem to carry one with them into 
an out-of-doors of sentiment and beauty." 

Mr. Steele is a Western man, who as a child drew 
and painted as naturally as he breathed. Coming 
East he soon was led into illlustration, and his charm- 
ing pictures of Myra Kelly's little East-side Hebrews, 
his apt illustrations of Stockton's "Mrs. Leeks and 
Mrs. Aleshine" and his illustrations of Richard Hard- 
ing Davis's stories are delightfully familiar to us. 

Mr. Sterner has long occupied an enviable posi- 
tion as an illustrator. Mrs. Humphry Ward, in her 
preface to her latest novel, "Fenwick's Career," pays a 
rare tribute to him. From all illustrators of any 
country, Mrs. Ward chose Mr. Sterner as most 
sympathetic and strong. Born in London in 1863 and 
educated at King Edward's School at Birmingham, 
Mr. Sterner is however an American citizen. He 
studied in Paris at Julien's and at the £cole des Beaux 
Arts. He came to the United States in 1881, going 

64 



to Chicago. He studied, taught, painted scenery, tried 
lithographing, then came to New York. He began 
to draw for Life, and as his work became known, he 
appeared in Scribner's, the Century and Har- 
per s. His illustrations for Curtis's 'True and I" im- 
mediately established him as no ordinary illustrator. 
He has also illustrated Poe's works and Coppee's 
Tales, as well as the works of Mrs. Humphry Ward. 
Mr. Sterner is noted also for his water colors and his 
portraiture in crayon. 

The "artist life of the arena" has had its represent- 
atives in quiet Nutley. Eaton Stone, the first bare- 
back rider in the world and the first man to ride four 
horses, for a number of years made this the winter 
quarters for his troop. His circus building until a few 
months ago stood on Kingsland Road. The spirited 
performances, to which the townspeople were freely 
invited, are a cherished memory. The later genera- 
tion hear of them, only to regret that such delights 
have passed from Nutley. 

Annie Oakley, ''Little Sure Shot," (in private life, 
Mrs. Frank Butler) is another and more famous name. 
She shot with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show' for sev- 
enteen years. During this time she received honors 
from many of the sovereigns of Europe and prominent 
people of our own country. She was asked by the 
Prince of Wales to shoot with him, and perhaps more 
of a compliment still was the coming of the King of 
Senegal in person to buy her. He offered twenty 
thousand dollars for her, and wanted to take her back 
to his country to kill off the man-eating tigers. He 
could not understand the refusal of his offer ! Her one 

65 



public performance in Nutley was at the circus given 
in aid of the Red Cross fund. Mr. Kendrick, the artist, 
made a poster for the occasion, representing "Little 
Sure Shot" on horseback, ready to fire. She writes 
that after visiting thirteen countries she loves America 
and Nutley best of all, and adds that here she hopes 
to end her days. 

Conclusion. — From the far-off time of those Dutch 
and English pioneers who subdued the wilderness and 
the forest, we have come to the day of the gardens and 
homes and smiling beauty of modern Nutley. The 
history of the Nutley Area from the first European 
foothold is a record of two hundred and forty years. 
The history of the Town of Nutley is but just begun, 
but begun with a force and promise that assure her a 
strong and honored maturity. 



66 



CIVIL ORGANIZATION. 

Town of Nutley, in the County of Essex, 
New Jersey. 

Chosen Freeholder (county official) 

Mayor 

Town Council : 2 members from each of the 3 wards 

Town Clerk 

Town Treasurer 

Town Attorney 

Town Engineer 

Supervisor of Roads 

Collector 

Assessor 

Recorder 

Justices of the Peace 

Overseer of the Poor 

Dog Warden 

Chief of Police 

Constables 

Chief of Fire Department 

Water Department : Clerk and Meter Inspector 

Commissioners of Assessment 

Board of Health : President, Clerk and Inspector 

Board of Education: President, Superintendent of 

Schools, District Clerk. 



(yl 



SOCIETIES, ASSOCIATIONS AND CLUBS. 

Civic Association 

Franklin Building and Loan Association 

Nutley Improvement Society 

Nutley Field Club 

Yountakah Country Club 

Nutley Fortnightly Club 

Povershon Tennis Club 

West Nutley Country Club 

Nutley Athletic Association 

Nutley Friday Afternoon Club 

Woman's Public School Auxiliary 

Lodges. — Nutley Lodge, No. 167, F. & A. Masons 

Kempton Council, No. 1545, Royal Arcanum 

Nutley Council, No. 286, Junior Order Uni- 
ted American Mechanics 

Stars and Stripes Council, No. 173, Daugh- 
ters of Liberty 

Crystal Council, Knights of Pythias. 



68 



PUBLIC UTILITIES. 

Railroad. — Newark Branch of the Erie Railroad. 
Stations: Nutley^ (first called Stitt's Station), 
West Nutley, and Avondale. 

Trolley .—North Jersey Street Railway Company. 

Water Supply. — From East Jersey Water Company, 
Pequannock watershed. 

Telephone. — New York and New Jersey Telephone 
Company. 

Lighting. — Gas and electric light from Public Service 
Corporation of New Jersey. 

Fire Department. — Organized 1894. Yantacaw En- 
gine Company, No. i, with combination chemical 
engine, quarters in Town Hall. Avondale Hose 
Company, No. i, has its own building equipped 
with combination chemical engine. West Nut- 
ley Hose Company, equipped with hose and hose 
carriage. 

Bank. — Organized 1906. Located in Town Hall. 

Local Papers.— The Nutley Sun and The Nutleyan. 

Libraries. — The Public School Library, including the 
State Traveling Library, at The Park School. The 
Nutley Library, Passaic Avenue. 

1 The present building was erected by popular subscription, after 
the first one was burned. 



69 



STATISTICS. 

Area of Ntttley: 3492 square miles. 

North boundary: 1.75 miles. 

East boundary: on Passaic River, 1.2 miles. 

West boundary: 2.1 miles, of which about one-sixth of 
a mile is the middle of the Morris and Essex Canal. 

Altitude. The highest point in Nutley is on Povershon 
Hill, 238 feet above sea level. The only official 
altitude ("bench") taken by State and U. S. Sur- 
vey, is the "rail of Erie R. R., opposite Nutley 
Station, 98.5 feet above sea level." 

Population from census of 1905 : 4,556. 

Assessable valuation: $3,875,939. 

Rate of taxation: $1.66 per $100. Outside hydrant 
district: $1.63 per $100. 

Poll tax: $1.00. 

Wards: 3. 

Streets: 112 named avenues, terraces, places, streets. 

Roads maintained by county : Washington Avenue, 
Kingsland Street, East Passaic Avenue, Center 
Street, High Street, Franklin Avenue from Har- 
rison Street to the Belleville line. 

Bridges, maintained by county : over Third River, 7 ; 
over Basking Brook, 3 ; over brook leading 
through Nichol's Pond,. 3 ; over raceways through 
"Yantacaw Park," 2. 

School Children enrolled: loio. 

Teachers enrolled: 34. 

Town appropriation for schools, for 1906-7 : $23,000. 

State "School Money," for 1906-7, $10,900.77; appor- 
tioned on character of work done, days at- 
tendance, and number of teachers and supervisors 
employed. 

Note. — State School Money is of vital importance to Nutley. Every 
absence recorded on the register reduces the sum that would be allowed 
to the town. 

70 



MAY 7 1907 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




